Saturday, March 19, 2016

My Two Favorites (Songs, I Mean)

Life has been a little crazy recently.  Crazy in a mostly good, life-is-abundantly-full-but-how-much-longer-can-I-sustain-this-pace kind of way.

At times, I've felt like I was in a whirlwind.  Other times I thought I must be running a marathon, although struggling to do so at the speed of a sprint.  Sometimes I saw myself as a swimmer in the middle of the ocean, treading water until help arrives and getting SO exhausted in the process.  And other times, I've thought surely I was the proverbial frog in the pot of slowly-heating water.  When would I reach the point of jumping out?  And how could I jump out anyway?

Because I have my Kindle set up in the kitchen and use that to listen to music on Pandora, I rarely turn on the radio these days; and when I'm driving in the Big White Van with my kids, I don't routinely turn it on there either (it's hard enough for people a few rows back to hear the conversation in the front, so adding more noise to the environment doesn't make much sense).  But once in a while, someone--usually Moriah--will request music while we're riding along; and if there's no important discussion happening at the moment, I will say yes and turn on the radio.  

That happened twice recently, and the song that came on both of those times was this one...

I had never heard it before, but I liked it immediately, and my kids did, too.  They, particularly the older ones, are well aware that life has been especially full during the past couple of months; and the message of "just breathe" was, I believe, a welcome one for them as well as for me.  :)  (And who can resist the effect of the music suddenly calming and the piano playing alone about 49 seconds into it? Perfect effect!)  :)

After the second time I heard it while we were driving somewhere, I told myself that I really needed to look it up when we got home.  I did and have listened to it a number of times during the past week or so; and even when I'm not listening to it, I often find a phrase or two from it running through my mind along with a snippet of the melody.  It's a new favorite, for sure!

With all of the things going on, I continually feel like a juggler who, in the middle of a public performance, just dropped all the balls in the air.  To put it mildly, I am not getting to everything that I should be getting to!  I feel like every day I apologize to someone (or multiple someones) by saying something like, "I'm so sorry I didn't get back with you about that," or "I'm sorry I haven't done that yet; I'll try to do it soon!"  

I'm all in favor of apologizing, but I wish I didn't have to do it quite so often!!  My self-condemnation is a heavier burden than anything that anyone else is putting on me, and so, this next song speaks deeply to me...

I first heard of Andrew Peterson when he opened a concert by Michael Card that I attended with my friend Julie some years ago, so every time I hear this I think of her.  :)  And then the refrain "be kind to yourself" runs through my head, and I take a deep breath, ready to take on the next task--whether that be apologizing to someone or a job that's more fun.  :)

Well, there you have it: my two newest favorite songs.

And now, for no apparent reason, I'm going to toss in a couple of pictures from part of yesterday's whirlwind.  :)

At a roller skating party with some local homeschoolers yesterday afternoon, the oldest four boys circled the rink numerous times, and I never did get a picture of them.  But the youngest two were a little easier to capture (although I took the photos with my cellphone so the quality is fairly low).

This is what Moriah likes to do when we go to the skating rink.  :)
And Benjamin got to hang out with one of his favorite people, Miss Janie (who also appeared in this blog post from several months ago).  :)
And with that, today's whirlwind has stilled, and sleep beckons, and I'm reminded that I am SO THANKFUL that God created the cycle of day and night so that we would get a break.

Because even the strongest swimmer can't tread water forever.  ;-)

1 comment:

sally said...

Sounds like your life has been even busier than mine! I opted to skip this final skate day, as popular and enjoyed as they are by all of us. We just had too much packed into this weekend with the piano festival, and I felt like we needed not to book that time slot.
I hope your life lets up soon. I am going to put you on my "must take them a casserole" list for the next time I am cooking!